Ending Sex Bias in Medical Research Starts With Lab Mice

The U.S. National Institutes of Health wants scientists to include more female laboratory animals and cells in early studies to better understand how women respond differently to medications.

The new policies will require researchers applying for NIH grants to report plans for avoiding gender bias in early lab studies, NIH director Francis Collins and Janine Clayton, director of the NIH’s Office of Research on Women’s Health, wrote in the journal Nature.